t give up all for a life with me?'

'Faith of a Borderer!' he answered gaily, as he kissed her hand. 'Now go
and do as I bid. There's no time to be lost. See! I grow stronger every
minute,' and he rose up on his knee and crawled forth from his refuge
assisted by Kitty. Then she went swiftly back to the farm and brought
with her dry clothes and a plaid, a second time she returned for meat
and drink for her lover, and the third and last time for his horse,
which she had already stabled in the byre.

'And now,' said Eric in her ear, as he lifted her into the saddle,
'we'll ride westward where we'll buy another "Bower" in another land.'

* * * * *

Through the early mist that morning an old shepherd was making his way
home from a late mart, when he encountered what he swore was 'the wraith
o' a great muckle moss-trooper wi' his marrow ahint him ridin' the ae
black horse.'

Arrived at home, he roused his wife, and imparted his information.

'Whisht, man, hand your whisht,' retorted she. 'Noo get intil your ain
bed. Ye aye see _double_ after a mart day.'

THE TALE OF THE THREE ANTIQUARIES

Thomas Turnbull stood beside his spade and gazed rapturously at a small
portable Roman altar which he had just unearthed. Owing to a fortunate
legacy he had recently been enabled to retire from his business as a
ship's broker, and had bought a farm not far from the line of the Roman
Wall in mid Northumberland.

He prided himself on being a practical man in all he undertook--'Plain
Tom Turnbull' he styled himself, and in the pursuit of antiquities,
which was now his hobby, he sneered at all theorists, and relied upon
the spade. '_Magister Palae_' was his motto, and now he had justified
his belief in his farm's occupying the site of an early out-lying Roman
camp.

Squat in build, sanguine in complexion, and auburn-haired, he stood
'four-square to all the winds'; his bold, prominent eyes recalled the
muzzle of an ancient blunderbuss ready to loose off at a moment's
notice.

Now the Society of Antiquaries of Oldcastle, of which he was a member,
were making a pilgrimage along the Wall on the next day, and he had
offered to provide tea for their refreshment at the conclusion of their
excursion.

Thus his 'find' was twice fortunate. He would now be enabled to confound
Telfer, one of the most learned of the Society's members, by the
evidence of his spade work. Telfer was an antiquary of the
'we